Amber Hawk SwansonChicago, IL

Artist’s Statement

As a performance / video artist also working in photography, I explore the interplay between repulsion, desire, and surrender. I rely on spatial and temporal relationships inherent in ritualized settings such as weddings, rollerskating rinks, and American-football tailgating parties. Each of my selected scenarios evokes nostalgia and camaraderie in spaces where the human impulses of curiosity, longing, hostility,and self-assessment are magnified. By inserting a sexually available silicone replica of myself into these already charged environments, the possibility of peril often interrupts allegiance to the social codes of each space.